Co-evolution of Competing Logics and Technologies in the Electric Automotive Community

Abstract

In this study we explore how scientists use multiple institutional logics, each of which tends to support a certain technology. While much of the institutional research has suggested and empirically demonstrated that institutional logics shape cognitive and behavioral patterns of actors, what still remains unclear is how scientists collectively construct the meanings of institutional logics in the context of the emergence of new technologies. Combining the perspectives of institutional logics and sociology of science and technology, we argue that scientists strategically create new meanings, modify a current institutional logic, and reinforce the new meanings rather than passively adopting institutional logics to support the technology they develop. To trace temporal changes in meanings which constitute institutional logics, we conduct an inductive study employing computer-aided text analysis and demonstrate how closely the evolution of institutional logics is related with broader technical and institutional environments.